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Posts tagged with "olive oil cake"

Olive Oil Cake and Onion Cookies

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Yesterday was a double-family birthday celebration and I was up for baking a cake. In the morning, I happened to see on MSN.com a blurb for "Olive Oil Cake - it looked pretty with a dusting of confectioner's sugar. What surprises me now is that a Google search brought up a number of olive oil cake recipes. MSN's feature was very much like this Olive Oil Cake from Food Network. It seems the Italian's had thought of using olive oil in their cakes before I ever heard of it.

Well, here's the recipe for the cake I made, as I had copied out the recipe to use yesterday. Knowing there was 1 1/2 cups of oil in the cake led me to describe it as "oiley" rather than moist, but it wasn't bad. I didn't happen to have parchment paper on hand on a Sunday morning and I wasn't much concerned about it either, but I'll have to remember to make paper-lined cupcakes if I make it again because it stuck real bad to the pan - and I think it would benefit from a few chopped apples. I also used Peach Schnapps with orange flavoring instead of the orange liqueur and I frosted it with cream-cheese frosting (using about a quarter to a half of the usual amount of ingredients - to keep it somewhat healthy). About the Onion Cookies, it's just a family joke - my kids think I make some strange concoctions.

Olive Oil Cake
View a video of this cake being made - it's here I learned the origin if this cake is Greek!
video

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
3 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup bleached almonds, chopped fine
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Fresh berries and mint, for garnish


Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the bottom and sides of a 10-inch round cake pan with nonstick spray. Cut a piece of parchment paper into a circle and set in the bottom of the pan.

In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate large bowl, cream together the eggs and sugar with a whisk. Add the orange juice, milk, olive oil, orange liqueur and lemon zest.

Mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Whisk until blended well. Pour the mix into the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle the almonds on top of the cake.

Bake for 1 hour, until the cake springs back to the touch. Remove cake from pan and place on a rack to cool. Run a knife around the edges and place the olive oil cake on a stand. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, garnish with fresh berries and mint.
December 2009
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